pittsburgh had u.s. steel, like general motors a fantastically-efficient company in the short run, but not a place that trained entrepreneurs, it trained company men. the middle managers in u.s. steel like the middle managers at general motors would not know how to start an electronic greeting card company if gm went down or us steel went down, but those garment guys, they would. indeed, my book tells the story of the builder of more new skyscrapers than anybody in the 1920s. he got his start in the garment district. he also showed a certain strain towards irrational exuberance. he declared that 1930 would be the greatest of all building years. he died poor. [laughter] now, of course, not everything about cities is rosy, particularly once you leave the u.s. the same urban proximity that enables people to communicate ideas also enables us to communicate diseases with one another, and if you're close enough to sell someone a newspaper, you're close enough to rob them as well. from the course of, over the c